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OKX and HashKey Back New Vietnam Crypto Exchange Ahead of Licensing Push

OKX Ventures and HashKey
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The Vietnam exchange, CAEX, announced that OKX Ventures and HashKey are backing the company as it seeks to qualify for Vietnam’s pilot regime for crypto exchanges. 

Summary 

  • OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital are investing in Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Exchange (CAEX), positioning themselves as major players in Vietnam’s emerging regulated crypto market. 
  • The investment raises CAEX’s capital base to about $380 million, passing the threshold to join a government pilot program for licensed crypto trading under Resolution 05/25.
  • Vietnam is also planning to implement stricter anti-money laundering rules to shift crypto activity onshore, aiming to repair the country’s financial reputation. 

OKX Ventures and HashKey Capital are investing in a Vietnam-based crypto exchange. This move comes as Hanoi speeds up efforts to bring one of the prominent retail crypto markets under binding regulations. 

Vietnam Prosperity Crypto Asset Exchange (CAEX) confirmed that the two firms have agreed to invest and become strategic partners alongside the founding shareholders, VPBank Securities and digital-identity firm LynkiD. 

According to the release, this investment is also intended to help CAEX reach Vietnam’s minimum charter capital threshold of 10 trillion dong, a major condition required for participating in the pilot program under Resolution 05/2025. 

Vietnam is shifting to a formal pilot program from the ‘grey market’ 

The OKX Ventures and HashKey deal came when Vietnam’s Digital Technology Industry Law took effect in January. The law formally recognized crypto assets and formed a legal groundwork for licensing, oversight, and industry incentives. The regulators are trying to push activities onshore through a pilot program, granting licenses to a few domestic exchanges in order to restrict offshore trading and tighten control over capital flows. The officials said that no more than five enterprises will be allowed to operate under the pilot. 

The framework also caps foreign ownership at 49% and requires at least 65% of capital to be held by institutional shareholders, creating restrictions even for bank-backed contenders. 

Authorities also hinted that they may block access to unlicensed overseas platforms once the onshore exchanges are operational. This could raise the stakes for foreign firms, leaving only the wealthiest and best-connected to survive. It has also triggered a race among local financial institutions and global crypto firms to lock in early positions. 

According to data, Vietnamese users transferred an estimated $200 billion in digital assets through mid-2025. The country is placed among the top crypto adoption markets globally. 

The OKX Ventures and HashKey partnership focuses on working with CAEX to develop infrastructure, security, compliance, and liquidity. The spokesperson for OKX told Cointelegraph that they could not disclose the size of the investments or the companies’ stakes in CAEX, nor whether the investment confirms the exchange’s selection in the pilot, saying it would not be “appropriate to comment further on the regulatory process.”

However, they said the investment would enable CAEX to meet the capital requirements for entering Vietnam’s regulated crypto pilot program. 

The spokesperson also added that the company would work with other shareholders “as appropriate” to ensure CAEX has “the financial strength and technical know-how” to ensure they meet user expectations and regulatory standards. 

Vietnam’s Booming Crypto Market With Tightening Regulations 

The crypto market in Vietnam has boomed in recent years. Chainalysis ranked the country fourth in global crypto adoption in 2025. However, several high-profile scams and fraud investigations have been reported, prompting regulators to tighten control. 

In March 2026, Vietnamese authorities detailed multiple ONUS-linked suspects, alleging they used false promotions and manipulated token trading to misappropriate billions of dollars of investor funds through the platform. So, the authorities have already formed a regulatory framework for the country’s digital asset industry. 

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